1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water deflector mounted at a joint between a horizontal frame member and a vertical frame member of a wall framing for storefronts, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical example of water deflector of the type concerned is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,064 and is again indicated by Reference Numeral 301 in phantom lines in FIG. 8 of the drawings appended hereto. The conventional water deflector 301 comprises a resilient U-shaped plate-like deflector body 303 including a pair of upper and lower wings, the upper wing terminating in a slant tail 305 directed slantingly downward. The U-shaped deflector body 303 of the water deflector 301 is snap fit into the a hollow horizontal frame member 307 with its bent directed forward as indicated by a dotted-dash arrow. When the deflector body 303 of the water deflector 301 is resiliently retained there as shown in partly solid and partly broken lines in the same figure, the slant tail 305 of the water deflector 301 protrudes beyond the end of the horizontal frame member 307. Subsequently, a vertical frame member (not shown) is fastened on its side perpendicularly to the end of the horizontal frame member 307 with the glazing pocket of the former aligned with the glazing pocket 309 of the latter. When the vertical frame member is fastened to the horizontal frame member 307, the slant tail 305 of the water deflector 301 projects into the glazing pocket of the vertical frame member. With such construction, rain infiltrated into the glazing pocket 309 of the horizontal frame member 307 flows along the slant tail 305 of the water deflector 301, down the inner wall of the vertical frame member and eventually drains through a weep hole formed in the bottom of the vertical frame member.
This conventional water deflector 301 is satisfactory to some extent but suffers the following disadvantages.
Since the water deflector 301 does not completely seal off the hollow horizontal frame member 307; part of rain flowing down the upper surface of the slant tail 305 of the water deflector 301 is inclined to swerve through a gasket-fitting channel down to the lower surface thereof and flow back along the lower surface of the slant tail 305 into the hollow horizontal frame member 307. This is more so during heavy down pours.
Furthermore, when installed in the horizontal frame member 307, the conventional water deflector 301 has its slant tail 305 projecting far beyond the end of the horizontal frame member 307. This projecting slant tail 305 of the water deflector 301 constitutes a bar to the operation of attaching the horizontal frame member 307 to the side of the vertical frame member, thus rendering the assemblage of the window framing tedious and time-consuming.